Valve releases Windows drivers for the Steam Deck
Those who happened to install Windows onto their Steam Deck handhelds might have run into some issues, mostly involving driver support, as Valve hadn't yet officially released the Steam Deck drivers at launch. Now that a few weeks have passed and more customers have gotten their hands on the Steam Deck, Valve has finally released the drivers necessary for users to fully turn their Deck into a handheld Windows gaming device. These drivers add support for the GPU, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and SD card reader, with support for speakers and the 3.5mm headphone jack to come at a later date.
- GPU driver
- download here, run setup.exe to install.- Wi-Fi driver
- download here, run install.bat to install.- Bluetooth driver
- download here, run installdriver.cmd to install.- SD Card reader driver
- download here, run setup.exe to install.- Audio drivers
are still being worked on by AMD and other parties. This document will be updated once those drivers are made available.
- Until those drivers are available, speakers and the 3.5mm audio port will not provide audio
- USB-C or Bluetooth can provide audio in the meantime
Additionally, dual boot support is not available yet either, despite the Steam Deck having the capability to do so. Valve claims that the option to dual-boot will be packed in with SteamOS 3. For now, if you want to run Windows, you'll have to fully commit to it instead of SteamOS, by getting into the boot menu via holding volume down and power at startup. You'll also need a USB-C hub or USB-C to Ethernet adapter, as you won't have access to the drivers during the initial setup, according to Valve.
Anyone interested in running Windows on their Steam Deck will also have to rely on others for troubleshooting, as Valve won't offer support related to "Windows on Deck", merely providing a reset guide for users to revert back to SteamOS. For now, only Windows 10 is officially supported--but again, support is on the way, with an incoming BIOS update that will allow users to also install Windows 11. For now, there's no ETA on when any of those features will launch.
Thanks to Proton and developers adding official Linux ports of their games, there's a wide variety of games natively available on SteamOS. However, installing Windows does allow access to the remaining titles that don't boot, or are unsupported, including Halo Infinite and Gears of War 5.
Source